Drivers often cause accidents when distractions within the vehicle consume their attention. Common distractions include small children, who may require special attention from an adult. Because of potential issues with the deployment of an airbag, it is often recommended to place the child in the back seat. However, this placement makes it difficult for the driver to pay attention to the child and may, at times, require the driver to turn his/her head around to view the child. The separation of the child sitting in the back seat may cause fussing, which only increases the distraction for the driver.
The rear-view mirror allows the driver to view occupants in the back seat, to a certain extent, without requiring the driver to turn his/her head around. However, in order to view the back seat, the driver may have to take a hand off of the steering wheel and to divert his/her eyes from the road to adjust the rear-view mirror. Adjusting the rear-view mirror may also reduce the driver's visibility of objects behind the vehicle. Furthermore, the rear-view mirror may not provide a sufficient view of children who are not looking directly at the mirror, such as a child sitting in a backward-facing child car seat.
The disclosed camera system is directed to mitigating or overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the prior art.